'Used by' host column rename, repurpose

[jakestenger]

customer-reedtimmer Gong snippet: TODO

Problem

In Hosts table views, the 'Used by' column is populated from Google Chrome profiles. This causes confusion when customers expect the table to reflect something more aligned with what they'd be tracking in their asset management / inventory, (identity provider (IdP) user, last known logged in user, or something updatable) instead of browser profiles, and it can show multiple “users” for a single device. Teams would like to either change what property powers 'Used by', or rename 'Used by' to something more aligned with its data source while adding another identifier field.

Security and observability notes

• The current solution may expose PII for end-users who have personal email addresses linked to their Chrome profiles. This may be unwanted data for some customers.

What have you tried?

• Verified that Used by is sourced from Chrome profile data and is not configurable today.
• In some cases, devices show many Chrome users (for example, 6), which makes the field noisy when the goal is to see the primary human owner.

Potential solutions

Option A: Configurable mapping for 'Used by'

• Setting to choose which host property populates Used by (for example: idp_full_name, idp_username, chrome_profiles, last_logged_in_user).
• Team-level override and API support.
• Backward-compatible default remains Chrome profiles unless changed by an admin.

Option B: Add separate columns

• New columns:
  • IDP User (for example, idp_full_name or idp_username)
  • Chrome Users (count with hover/flyout or a pill that opens the list)
    • Option to turn this data collection off (not just hide the column)

What is the expected workflow as a result of your proposal?

1. An admin opens Settings and either:
   • selects which property should populate Used by, or
   • enables the IDP User and Chrome Users columns and optionally disables the data collection currently populating 'Used by'.
2. In Hosts, operators see IDP User and Chrome Users separately, or a remapped Used by that reflects IdP identity.

[scottbisker]

This is a much needed change. It's very confusing and cumbersome to sift through a long list of Chrome profiles to determine actual user, when in fact the IDP user was already assigned.